My friend Bazz asks: "If one is not drawn by the Father then how can such a person be taught by God?"
First, John 6:46 explicitly states that all men are taught by God. When the Father teaches them, they ARE drawn by the Father. But how does God do this?
Jesus enlightens all men; Jesus draws all men to Himself; the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment; God grants repentance to all men; and the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Concerning John 6....
The quoting of verse 46 is an error. Verse 45 is the passage Vince is referring to.
Verse 45 is the scriptural support for Jesus statements in verse 44. This is obvious because the verse begins with the phrase "It is written in the prophets." The word "all" does occur in verse 45. Rather then simply recite a tradition on the term "all" please look at the rest of the verse, and the context. There are two reasons that the insertion of the tradition of Vince concerning the word "all" cannot be inserted into the verse. These two reasons have to do with the fact that the context demands that the "all" are saved.
Reason 1------In verse 44, it is clear that all who are drawn (and all who are taught of God), are saved. The phrase in verse 44 "and I will raise him up on the last day" refers to salvation. Those raised up are drawn. Those drawn, according to the prophets are "taught of God." What happens to them? They are raised up on the last day. If one looks at the end of verse 40 where the same identical phrase occurs, it can be seen that this refers to a resurrection to "eternal life." Verse 40 is clear that the one raised up possesses "eternal life." So then, those drawn in verse 44 are saved.
Reason 2------ In verse 45, the result of being taught of God, and those who "heard" and "learned" must be all saved. This can be seen at the end of verse 45 in the phrase "cometh unto me." This phrase is repeated in the context. In verse 37 those given by the father, "all" of them come to Christ. Again, if "all" means all men without exception, we have universalism. In verse 39, of "all that which he hath given me..." In verse 38, if the term "All" means all men without excpetion, we again have universalism, because Christ says "I will loose nothing" and then "but should raise it up on the last day."
*** I dont think Vince is actually a universalist, but he is merely inconsistent in a major way. If "all" means "all men without exception" in John 6, it is an inescapable conclusion that Vince is a universalist.
A second reason the term "all" in verse 45 refers to only the saved is because of the term "cometh unto me" at the end of verse 45. So then, all those "Taught of God" and those who "herd from the FAther" and those who "learned" are saved.
While Vinces view absolutely leads to a universalistic interpretation.
